A Lesson from Kitty

Did you ever meet someone that made an instant impact? It may be a brief encounter or it could have been the start of a life long friendship.

There was a woman named Kitty in my Tai Chi class this Tuesday. She was already in the room when I arrived. She was talking to the senior student. They appeared to know each other but I found out later they did not. The senior student walked over to where I was stretching and introducted me to Kitty. I said "hello" as the Tai Chi instructor walked in the door.

It was another good Tai Chi class. We worked on the the 108 move Yang long form. I know the pattern to the first section. I am trying to add a few pieces of the second section in every class. Kitty was new to the Tai Chi class but she followed along well. She had good balance and asked some questions. She was especially interested in the kicks. It turns out that she took Tai Chi for a while over twenty years ago.

After class, Kitty came over to talk to me. She was animated and I could tell that she loved to talk. We had a five minute conversation. During this brief exchange, I found out a lot about Kitty: 4 children, lifts weights, plays tennis, had a "terrible triad" over thirty years ago (pretty much completely ripped up her knee), broke an arm, three broken ankles and suffers from tremors. She said that she could not move as well as she used to because her "good" knee was giving her trouble.

She said to me "Well, I am seventy-seven. It is important to keep your body moving. I feel better when I am moving." At this point in the conversation my mouth may have dropped open a little. Kitty did not look or move like she was seventy-seven.

I told Kitty that I was glad to have met her and hoped she would be back in class next week. She taught me a valuable lesson about attitude. Kitty keeps moving and has a great outlook on life. Her ACL surgery was thirty years behind her.

It was just what I needed to hear.

I would have liked to talk to her more but she had to rush off. She had to get up early the next day for her tennis match.

Have you ever met someone in person or through blogging that has made an instant impact? Were someone's words exactly what you needed to hear?